What brings bed bugs out of hiding? Here is a guide on how to make these bugs come out of their hiding spots.
When bed bugs infest your home, they stay out of sight during the day and come out to feed or cause significant discomfort at night.
Sometimes a dark room and a still victim during the day is enough to pull them out of hiding to feed. Remember, these pests feed on blood that will readily bite when you’re lying or resting.
Even when bed bugs try to stay out of sight, a trained eye can spot them by searching for them.
However, how do you make them come out of hiding?
What action do you need to take to make these bugs leave their hiding spots? Is there any? There are, and you’ll love to read about such here.
How Bed Bugs Get into your Home
To begin with, we’ll need to briefly consider the origins of your infestation problem. Most times, bed bug infestations are brought in from elsewhere.
These creatures are excellent hitchhikers and easily find their way into homes by hitching a ride on luggage, suitcases, or other belongings.
You’ll find these bugs on transits or locations such as airports, retail clothing stores, public transportation, apartments, trains and bus stations, movie theaters, and hostels among other places frequently visited or used by humans.
Bed Bug Attraction
To make meaningful progress on ways to pull bed bugs out of hiding, we’ll need to identify the things that attract them. If you keep dirty laundry around, then the chances of these bugs congregating or using such laundry as a hive are highly possible.
But that isn’t the only attraction within your home.
-
Dark Bed Sheets or Bedding
Bed bugs are attuned to the dark, as such will find your dark bed sheets or bedding an incentive to stick around.
According to research, bed bugs are attracted to two main colors; black and red. It’s not surprising that bed bugs will be attracted to red colors as it resembles blood.
This gives you an idea of what to have around and what not to have around and how to manage a bed bug situation effectively.
-
Carbon Dioxide
Have you ever wondered what draws these parasitic pests out at night?
Yes, you got it right! Carbon dioxide! When you breathe, you take in oxygen and breath out carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide produced enables them to trace their way to your body for feeding.
The main reason why these bugs choose nighttime to feed is that asides from the carbon monoxide being produced, you’re lying stably with minimal movements.
This is a perfect condition for bed bugs to bite.
-
Warmth
Who doesn’t like some warmth on a cold day? Even bed bugs do! The heat released from your body when serves to easily attract them.
Little wonder that your bed area tends to be the hotspot of bed bug activity.
Luring Bed Bugs Out Of Hiding
Ever heard of bed bug lures?
These are tools that help with trapping these pests wherever they may hide. The reason why we earlier discussed the common attractions for bed bugs is that they’ll prove handy in explaining how lures work.
We said bed bugs are attracted by body heat, carbon dioxide, dirty laundry, and dark bedding materials. Now, one of those you can use to pull these bugs out of hiding is the CO2.
An interceptor cup is needed to create artificial CO2 which makes bed bugs think a source of food is close by.
You’ll need some dry yeast and granulated sugar to serve as bait in addition to a plastic bowl (preferably one with a divider that creates two halves).
Other items required include talcum powder, cotton balls, a large spoon, cloth tape, pieces of wood, warm water, and a plastic container with a lid.
Here is how to lure bed bugs out of hiding.
-
Preparing Your Bed Bug Lure
The process begins by prepping the plastic bowl provided.
By prepping, we mean making the surface rough enough to enable bed bugs to climb in. This is done by wrapping its outside walls using a cloth tape.
While you want bed bugs to climb in, you don’t want them leaving.
As such, the inside of the bowl needs to be dusted to make it smooth enough to prevent exit. Your cotton balls will come in handy for such a cleaning task. With this completed, you’ll need to prepare the bait.
When yeast and sugar are added to warm water and stirred, this results in a chemical reaction where carbon dioxide is released. This is just what you need to do.
Pour your yeast into the plastic container and mix the contents with your large spoon and it’s ready.
Now, the reasoning is this; just as you breathe out carbon dioxide, this bed bug lure does the same by releasing CO2. Now, the room must be dark enough to make them consider coming out of hiding.
Before long, a close inspection with a flashlight will reveal these parasites heading towards the lure. This is one effective way that uses an attractant to bring them out of hiding.
What Next?
Having lured bed bugs out of hiding, what remains? By now, you’ve confirmed the presence of bed bugs. At this point, you’ll need to take the necessary steps to fight back.
It’s easy to consider DIY options as extermination strategies. In reality, such action(s) isn’t as effective as calling a professional.
Pest Management Service to the Rescue
For a comprehensive bed bug treatment, you’ll need to call for professional treatment. There are lots of reputable bed bug control services available to offer the much-needed relief you seek. It all starts with a call.
Before then, you’ll need to read customer reviews about available pest management services.
This gives you an idea of what company does the job better. Having established contact with the service, skilled technicians are sent over with specialized equipment to inspect and proffer treatment.
A wide range of treatment methods is available. Based on your preferences, appropriate treatment is administered. One thing is sure, you’ll find the much-needed relief you seek from these pests.
By now, you should have learned a thing or two about luring bed bugs out of hiding.
This is necessary to help commence the treatment process.